Judge orders release of accused brothers

Two Sydney brothers accused of gross criminal neglect of their ailing mother before she died have walked from court carrying their prison greens after a judge ordered their release from custody.

Justice Des Fagan also dispensed with bail after hearing final submissions on Friday at their judge-alone manslaughter trial in the NSW Supreme Court.

He said he would deliver his verdicts and reasons next Friday.

Australian Federal Police diplomatic protection officer Phillip Thompson, 43, and David Thompson, 40, pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of their mother who developed infected bedsores while in her urine-soaked bed.

Shirley Thompson, 72, died in Blacktown Hospital on September 2, 2017.

Her younger son called an ambulance on August 23 saying his bedridden mother couldn't eat and had a wound on her backside.

She was found to be immobile, dehydrated and malnourished.

Paramedics and police officers described the Greystanes house as being filthy and disgusting.

Judge Fagan said the squalid conditions had nothing whatsoever to do with Ms Thompson dying.

Prosecutor Jeff Tunks alleged the men breached their duty of care to their mother and had been grossly negligent in the preceding month before an ambulance was called.

The siblings were aware of her deteriorating condition, including the significant buttock wound, and the need for medical attention, adequate nutrition, hydration and hygiene.

But defence barristers, Tony Evers and Janet Manuel, contended the mother consistently refused any medical or home help and made her own decisions about her lifestyle including what, if and when she ate.

Mr Evers agreed with the judge's summary of his case, that while the brothers could have done better, their shortfall was not so grave or gross or reckless to attract criminal punishment.

Justice Fagan referred to the evidence about the danger posed by bedsores, but noted this came from medical experts.

He also repeatedly said the siblings looked after her to the best of their abilities, while stressing they were not medical professionals.

Their mother had insisted on not getting any help as: "She didn't want to die in a nursing home and she didn't want to die in a hospital."

Earlier on Friday, defence witness Peter Monaghan said his friend Shirley Thompson went downhill very rapidly about a year after her husband Gordon died in 2012.

The headstrong widow repeatedly refused to get medical or personal care help, or to fund home improvements.

"She would not have a bar of anything and was very determined not to have it," he said.

Justice Fagan referred this evidence to the prosecutor asking whether the "watershed" month before her death, when the alleged neglect and breach of duty took place, could be detectable by the brothers given her general decline over time.

Before ordering the release of the men, who were arrested in May 2018, he queried having a judge-alone rather than a jury trial given the case was about the application of community values.